They are veteran pilot instructors in the Libyan airforce and when the revolution broke out, they were ordered to bomb a peaceful town called Qaryat, in the south of Libya. The person that debriefed them told them "Drop all your bombs, and when you're done, drop the fuel pods too... they might kill an extra person"
They took off from Watya airbase (near the Tunisian border) and after having made the decision on ground, both pilots flew under the radar all the way to Malta - surprising air traffic controllers here who at first thought it was an attack by Gaddafi
When I met them, one of the pilots was still worried about revealing his identity to the media, because the southern part of Libya was still not liberated and that is where his family was hidden by friends, the same day he decided to defect. The other pilot's family stayed in Tripoli, hiding as well. Both pilots told me that they would rather sacrifice their families as martyrs than bomb a inch of Libyan soil.
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